Graduate School of Peking Union Medical College, 9 Dongdansantiao, Beijing 100730, China.
Infect Genet Evol. 2011 Mar;11(2):476-82. doi: 10.1016/j.meegid.2010.12.012. Epub 2011 Jan 11.
We identified and characterized a novel virus, designated rabbit hepatitis E virus (HEV), in rex rabbits farmed in China. Rabbit HEV is genetically related to but distinct from other known mammalian HEVs and avian HEV and may represent a novel genotype. To evaluate the spread and genetic variation of rabbit HEV, a total of 1094 serum samples were collected from various breeds of rabbits across ten counties in China. All sera were screened for the presence of anti-HEV antibody, HEV antigen and viral RNA. A total of 169 samples (15.4%), from nine of the ten counties, were found to be positive for HEV antibody. The seroprevalence was highest in Wuhan, Hunan Province (53.4%, 55/103). Samples positive for HEV antigen were detected in seven counties and the overall prevalence was 3.7% (41/1094). HEV RNA was detected in 22 samples and all but one of these samples was found to be positive for HEV antigen. Sequence analysis of the 304 bp amplicons within open reading frame 2 showed that all HEV isolates in this study clustered with known rabbit HEV strains, in a branch separate from genotypes 1 to 4. The rabbit HEV strains were genetically heterogeneous and divided into divergent groups. Strains from the same geographic region tended to cluster together. These results indicate that rabbit HEVs with considerable genetic diversity are prevalent in farmed rabbits in China. The potential zoonotic risk of rabbit HEV needs to be investigated and evaluated further.
我们在中国养殖的獭兔中鉴定并描述了一种新型病毒，命名为兔戊型肝炎病毒（HEV）。兔 HEV 在基因上与其他已知的哺乳动物 HEV 和禽 HEV 相关，但又有所不同，可能代表一种新型基因型。为了评估兔 HEV 的传播和遗传变异，我们从中国十个县的不同品种的 1094 份血清样本中采集了总样本。所有血清均进行了抗 HEV 抗体、HEV 抗原和病毒 RNA 的检测。从十个县中的九个县中，总共 169 份（15.4%）样本检测出抗 HEV 抗体呈阳性。湖北省武汉市（53.4%，55/103）的血清阳性率最高。在七个县检测到了 HEV 抗原阳性样本，总阳性率为 3.7%（41/1094）。在 22 个样本中检测到了 HEV RNA，其中除一个样本外，其余均为 HEV 抗原阳性。对开放阅读框 2 内 304bp 扩增子的序列分析表明，本研究中的所有 HEV 分离株与已知的兔 HEV 株聚类，位于与基因型 1 至 4 分离的分支中。兔 HEV 株具有遗传异质性，并分为不同的组。来自同一地理区域的株倾向于聚集在一起。这些结果表明，在中国养殖的獭兔中普遍存在具有相当遗传多样性的兔 HEV。需要进一步调查和评估兔 HEV 的潜在人畜共患病风险。
